Finding new use for old tires

HUNTLEY - Scott Dawson points to a small pile of shredded rubber, enough to fill a grocery bag. "That's 300 tires," he announces.
Dawson's company, DTR Environmental Services Inc., recently started shredding Prince Edward Island's waste tires. They purchased the shredder in Missouri and are still in the fine-tuning process.
"Tires are the most ornery pieces of junk to deal with," Dawson said. "They are just awkward."
Prior to his company coming on the scene, the province's waste tires were being disposed of in Quebec, and at an expense to the P.E.I. Department of Transportation.
The department now pays DTR for disposal, but at a saving.
Tires are stockpiled at the Island Waste Management facility in Wellington until DTR claims them.
The shredded rubber, Dawson said, will ultimately be sold back to the department as tire-derived aggregate and used in certain civil engineering projects.
Shredded rubber, Dawson explained, offers better drainage qualities than gravel. It's suitable for use on embankments. It doesn't erode away like gravel, and it's lighter to use.
He noted a project in St. Stephen, N.B., last year used shredded rubber from 1.6 million tires.
Rubber can also be used in asphalt applications, but Dawson said there is just not enough tires disposed of in P.E.I to make that feasible.
He suggested there would only be enough shredded rubber produced at his plant to supply two or three projects a year.
Dawson sees the operation as a win-win for the province and the environment. There is no contamination from the rubber, he said, and the operation creates employment.
He estimates the shredding will create between 80 and 100 man weeks of employment per year. "That's 80 to 100 weeks that weren't here before," he stressed.
On the first full day of production, the company had a crew of four feeding tires into the shredder and monitoring the process.